The present invention relates to the area of devices which protect neon border lights. Neon border lights are frequently damaged or destroyed due to their location in relatively high traffic display windows. As display windows, retail and otherwise, are removed and updated or as maintenance persons access the area around the neon border lights, the resultant damage and destruction to the neon border lights requires repair and/or replacement of the neon border lights with significant, but unnecessary, attendant costs to the owner of the display borders.
Previous solutions which addressed the problems concerning the rigidity of neon or fluorescent light structures and the dangers and costs generated by their destruction have included complex encasement devices such as plastic coatings or sleeves, or structurally inappropriate mounting accessories which were not originally developed to protect an entire length of a neon border light.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,304 granted to Gillemot on Apr. 27, 1971, a mounting accessory is disclosed for securing and detachably mounting flexible cable, i.e. interior telephone cables. The accessory comprises C-clips made from resilient elastomeric material, sized to receive and grip cables provides deep V-notches within the lateral walls of the C-clip to facilitate insertion and flexing of the C-clip. The C-clips have a planar surface posteriorly located from the C-clip opening and utilize interlocking barb and fiber separable strips. The '304 patent does not disclose a mounting accessory intended to run the length of the mounted item, addresses concerns more appropriate to flexible telephone cables than to rigid neon tubing and has the distinctive structural profile of a C-clip with V-notches.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,368 granted to Northrup on May 28, 1990, a protective containment sleeve for a fluorescent lamp is disclosed in which the sleeve is attached to the circumference of the end of a fluorescent tube by adhesive and completely encases the lamp providing a sleeve to withstand mechanical stresses to the fluorescent lamp and to protectively contain a damaged fluorescent lamp should it explode. The approach of the '368 patent is to protect against minimal mechanical stresses to the lamp and to contain an exploded lamp after it has been destroyed. The present invention has a preventative focus in that it allows for easy removal of the protected light thus avoiding much of the dangers associated with display changes or display maintenance while still allowing for the protective and containment features of other devices.